What is the pee stop and how is it used?

The pee stop is a device that is used to treat cases of enuresis in childhood and that has a high efficiency. It can be purchased in pharmacies or online.

Did you know that 10.6% of children between 5 and 10 years old have nocturnal enuresis? And that it is much more common in boys than in girls? Many times it is a disorder that disappears over time, although pee stop has been shown to accelerate this process.

The pee stop mechanism is based on learning through conditioning, being one of the most effective and used treatments for this disorder. It basically consists of a device that has an audible alarm and a sensor. The sensor detects when the child is starting to urinate, which sounds the alarm, which wakes the child immediately. But why is it so effective in treating childhood enuresis? How exactly does it work? Discover it here!

What is the pee stop and how is it used?

The pee stop (also called the “alarm method”) is a smart alarm clock based on conditioning learning, which would be what would lead the child to control his urination. It is used to treat cases of childhood enuresis or urinary incontinence, which consists of repeated involuntary emission of urine during the day or in bed at night.

This device was developed following the experiments of Mowrer & Mowrer (1938), and has been updated through the latest advances in electronic technology.

The pee stop is designed, ideally, for children over 5 years old who want to stop wetting the bed. Before explaining in more detail what pee stop consists of and how it works, let’s briefly describe what enuresis is.

Childhood enuresis

Pee stop is used to treat childhood enuresis; according to the DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5, lEnuresis is the repeated emission of urine (voluntary or involuntary). In order to be diagnosed as such, it is necessary that 2 or more episodes of urine emission occur per week for more than 3 consecutive months; If this criterion is not met, it is at least necessary for the disorder to cause significant discomfort or impairment in order to be diagnosed.

For its part, The ICD-10 considers that enuresis is only an involuntary behavior.; Additionally, this manual specifies that if the disorder is accompanied by encopresis (passage of stool, involuntary or intentional), only encopresis will be diagnosed. Continuing with the ICD-10, enuresis can appear in isolation or accompany an emotional or behavioral disorder.

But, at what age can we start diagnosing childhood enuresis? From 5 years old (also in children with a level of development equivalent to this age). In addition, we also find secondary or late-onset enuresis, which appears between 5 and 7 years of age.

What is pee stop like?

Returning to the pee stop as the treatment of choice in most cases of enuresis, we are going to explain what this device consists of. It is a small plastic box that is attached to the child’s pajamas, as if it were a soccer shield. (this can also motivate them to use it); It has a safety pin (approved and safety), a buzzer, a switch and a humidity sensor placed at the end of a cable, which is responsible for activating and sounding the alarm when the child begins to urinate on himself.

Thus, the humidity sensor is one of the key elements of the pee stop; It is small, according to the brand itself pipistop It usually measures between 13 x 31 mm, and is placed in a panty liner and attached to the boy’s or girl’s underwear or panties. But how exactly does the sensor work?

How does the pee stop work?

The first drop of the boy or girl when he or she starts to urinate already moistens the pee stop sensor and makes the buzzer sound.; This causes the child to immediately wake up from the sound and stop urination.

Once awake, the child should go to the bathroom to finish urination. Through a series of trials, and thanks to a learning process, the child’s own body becomes accustomed to interrupting urination through the sphincter, which causes the child to stop urinating over time.

What is the pee stop treatment like?

Treatment with pee stop, as a general rule, usually lasts between 4 and 12 weeks. Its therapeutic efficacy is very high, and success cases range from 70-90% of total cases in the period of the first 3 months of treatment.

The criterion for treatment success is 14 consecutive nights without enuretic episodes. It should be said here that relapses appear in 1 in 3 patients and that in these cases an intermittent procedure is used (relapse prevention), which implies that the alarm sounds only in some enuretic episodes.

Before starting treatment with pee stop, It is essential to rule out an organic disease that explains the enuresis. To do this, a medical evaluation will be necessary, in order to rule out all non-functional (or organic) causes that explain the enuresis. What are these organic causes related to? Basically with neurological, infectious disorders, cystitis, diabetes mellitusconsciousness and sleep disorders, sleepwalking, spina bifida or other pathologies or conditions.

Operating mechanism: different hypotheses

The pee stop is based on the mechanism of classical conditioning that was originally proposed by Mowrer & Mowrer (1938). The authors, although they recognized that the child usually inhibited urination, even if he did not wake up, They continued to propose awakening as a central element of the technique or device.

Continuing with classical conditioning, in this case the unconditioned stimulus (US) would be bladder distention and detrusor tension, the unconditioned response/unconditioned stimulus would be the relaxation of the sphincter and the beginning of urination and the unconditioned response, awakening.

In turn, the alarm would be an unconditioned stimulus (US) that would lead the child to wake up (unconditioned response), and contract the sphincter/interrupt urination (also unconditioned response). Thus, according to Mowrer & Mowrer, the pee stop works through classical conditioning.

Operant conditioning

But not all authors thought the same; according to Peter Lovibond (1964), the device is based on an operant conditioning mechanism. According to this model, inhibiting urination (which involves contracting the bladder sphincter) would be an avoidance response; Lovibond, unlike Mowrer & Mowrer, was of the opinion that in this procedure it is irrelevant whether the child wakes up (that is, the treatment is equally effective).

Following the operant conditioning model, the following would occur: with the child’s urination response, the “punishment” arrives (which would be the alarm); contraction of the sphincter and not urinating, on the other hand, would be an avoidance response of the child that would work through negative reinforcement (“no alarm, no punishment, no urination”). That is, the child would end up “learning” that, if he does not wet the bed, the alarm does not sound (avoidance of punishment) and therefore he does not have to wake up.

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